Rikke, thanks for the kind words regarding my serendipity (as they say, there are two ways to be good, luck and talent; I guess I excel in the former). So here is an update: I prepped and cooked the first three bags of substrate (33 pounds) on Friday. This time I was very cautious about pH and monitored it closely in all stages. The substrate prior to prepping was pH-adjusted to 5.0 (down from around 5.5 drained from the mash). Post cooking the substrate pH dropped to 4.5, something I did not expect nor understand. Given the drop from cooking the substrate, I don't think I'll be adding any citric acid into the substrate for the remaining bags since the fermenting and cooking alone seems to drop the pH plenty low. It's funny how I spent all this time learning that I could succeed if I just tried a little less hard - a true lesson in mushroom growing I guess.
The bags were inoculated 24 hours ago, and this morning I see some white hair-thin halos on a few specs of sawdust. Although I'd need magnification to know for sure--I should get one of those jeweler's magnifiers!--the only phenomenon that I know that can create this appearance is mycelium growth, so I think everything is going to be fine. Since there are already signs of growth after only 24 hours, the 4.5 pH must not be a problem at all.
Roger
PS - Given the pH drop I saw with cooking and how much citric acid I used to get a pH pre-cook of 3.8, it would not surprise me if the first set of bags had a pH of 3.2 or so. That is probably just too low for the mycelium to tolerate.
On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 7:26 PM, Rikke Rasmussen <rikke.c.rasmussen at gmail.com> wrote:
>>Hey folks,
>>>>>>Here are the latest pics: https://plus.google.com/photos/103960152819764522461/albums/5673920333877202449/5673512162566650498>>- one is contaminated, and although the moldy spot on the surface is pretty small, you can tell how all the fruits are deformed and miscolored; the other is a happily fruiting uncooked coffee log.
>>>>>>Roger, thrilled to hear that you've discovered the source of your problems with the stipticus - really hope you get those critters to fruit!
>>>>>>Tony, you should totally come by the space on Monday and meet the mushroom grow people - there's a distinctly non-zero chance of there being other Tastebridgers around to talk to and get to know.
>>>>>>Hope to see everyone Monday at 7:30!
>>>>/Rikke
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